Spark gaps have been utilized for the purpose of providing electrostatic protection from input voltages that exceed the voltage specification of the electronic circuitry on integrated circuits. In current technology, advances in the manufacturing technology for semiconductor devices has provided devices that operate on very low voltages, typically 3.0 Volts or lower in most applications. The reason for this is to facilitate operation on only two cells of a battery, or even a single 1.5 Volt cell. However, a problem arises when high input operating voltages that exceed the voltage specification of the integrated circuit are impressed across different terminals of the part in the normal operating mode thereof. To reduce the voltages at the input to the integrated circuit, an attenuator is placed on the input reduce the input voltage swing with some type of resistive divider circuit, and then the common mode voltage is reduced to a workable range. However, when these input voltages exceed the breakdown voltage of the circuitry utilized for the attenuator, more robust protection is required. These overvoltage conditions can cause damage to the integrated circuit that is typically attached to an input terminal via the resistive divider circuits. If this voltage exceeds the operating voltage for the integrated circuit, the circuit will fail. One solution has been to utilize spark gap Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection device that provides for a device that shunts current resulting from a high voltage spike to ground. This is typically a destructive operation that destroys the spark gap but does protect the integrated circuit for that particular spike. Present systems for realizing spark gaps as an ESD device utilize metal layers in the integrated circuit that are disposed on the same level and disposed a small distance apart, such that the voltage will cause a current “arc” across the gap, which shunts current to ground and subsequently destroys the gap due to the breakdown associated with the arcing.